Grossner Hafner is one of the 111 serial sites of the

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

'' Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps'', of which are 56 located in Switzerland.

Geography

Grosser Hafner was located on the then swamp area between the

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, continuing a further 35 km until it reaches the river A ...

and Zürichsee around Sechseläutenplatz on a small

lake island A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago. Formation Lake islands may form in numerous ways. They may occur through a build-up of sedimentation as shoals, and become t ...

in Zürich, and as well as the other

Prehistoric pile dwellings around Zürichsee Prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich are Stilt house, pile dwelling sites located around Lake Zurich in the Cantons of Switzerland, cantons of Canton of Schwyz, Schwyz, Canton of St. Gallen, St. Gallen and Canton of Zurich, Zurich. The a ...

set on piles to protect against occasional flooding by the

Linth The Linth (pronounced "lint") is a Switzerland, Swiss river that rises near the Linthal, Glarus, village of Linthal in the mountains of the cantons of Switzerland, canton of canton of Glarus, Glarus, and eventually flows into the Obersee (Züri ...

and Jona. The settlement is located on

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

in Enge, a locality of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Zürich. It was neighbored by the settlements Zürich–Enge Alpenquai and Kleiner Hafner on a then island in the effluence of the Limmat, within an area of about in the city of Zürich. Grosser and Kleiner Hafner comprise , and the buffer zone including the lake area comprises in all.

History

Internationally known is the area since 2009, as in the beginning of the construction of the underground parking facility at Sechseläutenplatz the remains of

, in the immediate vicinity of the wetland soil settlement Kleiner Hafner in the lower basin of Lake Zurich, were found. Instead of a rescue excavation, the construction works were suspended for nine months and the settlement remains were systematically archaeologically recorded; the results of the excavations are permanently shown in the pavilion to the lakeshore. Archäologie im Parkhaus Opéra - Pavillion Sechseläutenplatz 2014-10-31 17-05-29.JPG, Entrance to the archaeological exhibition Archäologie im Parkhaus Opéra - Ausstellung im Tiefparkhaus Sechseläutenplatz - Horgener Kultur - Fragment eines Topfes mit (!) Verzierungen 2014-10-31 17-09-36.jpg, Horgen culture, fragment of ceramics Archäologie im Parkhaus Opéra - Ausstellung im Tiefparkhaus Sechseläutenplatz - Horgener Kultur - Steinbeil in 'Zwischenfutter' aus Hirschgeweih aus Originalsediment 2014-10-31 17-10-11.jpg, Horgen culture, fragment of a shafted stone axe File:Archäologie im Parkhaus Opéra - Ausstellung im Tiefparkhaus Sechseläutenplatz - Horgener Kultur - Silexdolch aus Norditalien (Replik) und Pfeilspitzen 2014-10-31 17-13-33.jpg, Horgen culture, silex knife and stone arrowheads Archäologie im Parkhaus Opéra - Ausstellung im Tiefparkhaus Sechseläutenplatz 2014-10-31 17-09-11.jpg, multimedia presentation at the lakeshore pavilion

Roman island sanctuary

In Roman time, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, a round wooden temple as an island sanctuary was built at the Hafner island, which allows a dendrochronological dating. The building was erected in 122 AD, and consisted of oak piles driven deep into the lake bottom. It was surrounded probably with walls made of perishable materials, which formed a circle of seven meters in diameter. The rotunda is located on the former island settlement, about 500 meters away from the ''Vicus Turicum''. The archaeological material indicates that the facility sure may was used up in the 3rd century AD, even up in the 4th century AD by the Gallo-Roman population. On the one hand, the interpretation as the temple is based on the insularity and the design, on the other hand on finds of coins; the majority of the now nearly 90 coins probably are from a so far not proven predecessor building, probably from the third quarter of the 1st century AD. There are also the fragments of bar tiles of maybe another Roman building. In the diving operations from 1998 to 2001 almost 100 kilograms of tile fragments are ensured, and up to 40 coins and several pottery shards, as well as rectangular post hole. An island sanctuary of the Helvetii in connection with settlement the preceding Oppidi Uetliberg and the 1st century BC settlement at the

Lindenhof hill The Lindenhof (''"Tilia, linden yard"'') is a moraine hill and public square in the historic center of Zurich, Switzerland. It is the site of the Switzerland in the Roman era, Roman and Carolingian era Kaiserpfalz around which the city has histor ...

may have probably go back to the

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a Iron Age Europe, European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman Republic, Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age ...

.Beat Eberschweiler: ''Schädelreste, Kopeken und Radar: Vielfältige Aufgaben für die Zürcher Tauchequipe IV''. In: NAU 8/2001. Amt für Städtebau der Stadt Zürich, Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Unterwasserarchäologie / Labor für Dendrochronologie. Zürich 2001.

Description

Once a former island or peninsula at the estuary of Lake Zurich lakeshore and the

, the settlement ''Kleiner Hafner'' represents all periods of pile dwelling. There are finds from the Neolithic ''Egolzwil'', ''Cortaillod'' and ''Horgen'' cultures forming an important reference assemblage which allows to study the cultural development during the late 5th and early 4th millennia BC.

Protection

The settlement is listed in the

Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance #REDIRECT Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance {{R from other capitalisation ...

as a ''Class A'' object of national importance. Hence, the area is provided as a historical site under federal protection, within the meaning of the Swiss Federal Act on the nature and cultural heritage (German: Bundesgesetz über den Natur- und Heimatschutz NHG) of 1 July 1966. Unauthorised researching and purposeful gathering of findings represent a criminal offense according to Art. 24.

Literature

* Peter J. Suter, Helmut Schlichtherle et al.: ''Pfahlbauten – Palafittes – Palafitte''. Palafittes, Biel 2009. . * Beat Eberschweiler: ''Ur- und frühgeschichtliche Verkehrswege über den Zürichsee: Erste Ergebnisse aus den Taucharchäologischen Untersuchungen beim Seedamm''. In: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Schwyz, Volume 96, Schwyz 2004.

References

External links

*
Stadt Zürich Unterwasserarchäologie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zurich-Enge Alpenquai Prehistoric pile dwellings in Switzerland Lake Zurich Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Zurich History of Zurich Islands of Switzerland